Under My Skin
by BlackaddictReader
Summary: I wasn't crazy. They were there. Always crawling, slithering, and walking on my skin, passing my ears with low, slow hisses, leaving invisible trails of slime and tiny footprints. I wasn't crazy. I really wasn't. You just have to look really, really hard…


**So I've been pimping this new story in my other story "I'm Mute" no one actually reviewed about it, but then again i did post little snippets in the authors notes. No one reads authors notes anyway so i said fuck it! imma post it and here we are.  
This is my first attempt at 3rd person POV :)  
enjoy! Oh and all mistakes are mine because i suck at editing :P**

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When I was small, I didn't have a best 'friend'. No 'friend' would usually mean a living person. My best 'thing' was my bath tub. The crawling had always been with me. Even as a baby, my mom had to put those little gloves on my hands to keep me from scratching my face.

By the time I was 6, it was a soft whispering tickle. It would calm down after a bath. But only for after a few hours of peace the urge to pick and pull on the little worms and slithering bugs became incessant once more. My only solution was to escape the tiny four walls of my house and dive into mud, making myself so dirty it'd take a good hour and a half to wash off, if I was lucky. I did that twice everyday for 3 solid months before my parents began to let me stay dirty.

As the years progressed it became worse despite moms claims that it was just a phase. But it didn't pass. And I wasn't crazy. They were there. Always crawling, slithering, and walking on my skin, passing my ears with low, slow hisses, leaving invisible trails of slime and tiny footprints.

I wasn't crazy. I really wasn't. They were there. You just have to look really, really hard…

~0~

It was a shockingly bright day in the normally dreary Forks. It was the middle of June and that meant the yearly carnival had arrived. Almost all of Fork citizens had been gathered to the towns' center by the carnivals rides, food, and prizes. So it came as no shock that both the Swan and Cullen families would be out and about that today.

"Stay close, Honey." Esme said with a smile to her son, Edward, who had been close of running out of her sight twice now. He was overjoyed to see all the attractions, his interest being peaked at each turn. The family's outing turning into a wonderful memory to his parents.

The atmosphere was completely different over at the Swans side. The air surrounding them held a tense nervous breath. Renée and Charlie kept a watchful eye on Bella.

It seemed impossible this morning to get her out of bed, the tears and screaming branding themselves into their brains. They would have not gone to the carnival but Renée would have been damned if she let Bella miss this amazing time off year.

She hope, prayed, that Bella would leave that bug nonsense at home today and just let herself be a child.

To make her parents gently scold her for straying off or being so impatient for more tokens, but it was a waste of time Renée and Charlie quickly realized as they watched over their six year old daughter. She was currently staring intently at the fish. They were the prizes for popping five balloons consecutively.

_If I could, I would set you all free fishes. _ Bella thought as she all but pressed her nose against the glass wall, trying her best not to scratch the pesky worm currently making its way down her knee.

Thankfully the worm wasn't so annoying that she couldn't just flex her knee and it would stop.

She was trying; she really was trying not to make a scene about the bug currently crawling over every inch of her skin. So she decided to endure the torture for a few more hours, as painful as it seemed to her, for her parents.

She wouldn't be a disappointment.

"Momma! Look! Can I have one?" The voice of a little kid made its way to her, Bella turned away from the fishes and saw the kid jumping up and down pointing at a man holding a stick with bags of blue and pink cotton candy.

At the sight of the sugary candy her stomach growled very loudly and without a second thought she turned to ask her parents to buy her one as well.

During her fish watching though, she missed her parents' call of "we'll be by dream catchers for a little bit, Bella!"

Panic flared within her, but she made sure not show it. Carefully walking around to make sure she didn't bump into anyone, she looked for her parents. Just as she was about to start crying she heard her mother.

"It's beautiful! Oh Charlie please buy it" Her ears perked at the sound of her mothers voice and she made a sharp turn, walking a bit faster. Luckily Renée kept talking making it easy for Bella to locate them.

She was about twenty feet away from the little tent full of little hanging things that Bella didn't know about when suddenly she was knocked down, right onto her butt.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I wasn't looking." Seven year old Edward said quickly, he dropped his trash and picked up the small, tiny girl. As he pulled her by the arms up to her legs he made sure to check if she had a booboo so his daddy could fix her. It was then that he noticed that the girl was trembling, with a faraway look to her eyes.

"Hey…are you okay?" He asked worried, started to feel fear drip into his current emotions. He didn't mean to hurt her. He wasn't paying attention as he was running.  
He wanted to get back to the carnival games as fast as possible.

His hand slowly reached towards the girl, who still stood frozen and just as his hand was going to make contact she reacted.

"No!" She screamed so loud that it cracked at the end. Edward jumped and it seemed like everyone around them also stopped what they were doing in shock of the little girls cry.

"The bugs! They're mad!" She cried louder, tears starting to stream down her face and she began to violently claw at her arms. Immediately her pale white skin was full of red lines. Edward winced, feeling the scratches as if they were on his own arms.

"Hey calm down. Please." He begged, without thinking once more making an attempt to touch her.

Bella's eyes wild with fear and desperation widened and jumped away from him.

"No!" she screamed again, panting loudly. She looked around her, unconsciously still digging her nails into her arms. She realized she was making a scene and her blood ran cold, she turned her head to the tent and saw her parents making their way to her.

She gasped and ran.

She didn't know where she was going to but kept running, ignoring the calls from her parents to stop. The bugs. They were mad, and now they were growing.

They didn't like to be touched, especially by a stranger. How many times had that boy touched her arms? Three? Four times?

Her skin felt like it was crawling, restless. She stumbled and was brought out of her thoughts as she fell into mud the impact making her hair clip to fall to the floor, releasing her hair in a cascade around her shoulders. The tips now covered in mud as well. She chocked on her tears and sat on her bottom. Blinded by her tears and urge to make the bugs leave.

"Hello? Girl is you here?" Edward called out; he had followed after the girl into the forest, also ignoring his parents calls. He felt responsible for what was happening.

He was so busy looking in front of him that he didn't pay attention to the floor. He tripped and landed roughly on the soggy, muddy floor just a few feet away from the object that caused him to fall. His face, pinked from so much running in a short amount of time for a boy his age, paled and he almost lost his lunch along with the cotton candy.

Lying on the floor unconscious was the girl, her hair was tangled and absolutely muddy, her face covered in mud and streaked with tears. There was a red substance that he couldn't identify mixed with the mud.

He looked down at her arms suddenly remembering her motions back at the carnival.

This time…he did lose his lunch, even after every last drop, his body revolted against the sight so much it kept dry heaving. His face was turning a bright red from the exertion of the heaves and lack of air making its way to his lungs, the tears making it so much worse, but he couldn't seem to control his reactions.

The little girl was laying there, her clothes impossibly muddy, hair tangled and messed up, face covered in mud, tear streaks and…blood. Oh there was so much blood; he couldn't bear to look at the girl again.

He slowly breathed through his mouth, as to not smell the vomit on his clothes and on the floor. The image seemed tattooed to the inside of his eyelids. Her alabaster arms ruined and marred by the blood and cuts. They were in lines of four.

_Her nails_ he realized were the source of the small uniform injures.

"Baby!"

"Honey!"

The children's mothers came through the opening perpendicular to the one the kids came through.

A series of gasps followed and cries for help. Each mother rushing to her child.

"I didn't do anything." Edward kept crying as he clutched his mother, his small body convulsing with the intensity of his tears.

"I know, honey. I know." Esme whispered patting Edwards back, keeping his sight of view away from Bella. She had heard rumors of her, of the bugs. But  
she never imagined it to be this bad.  
_  
That poor family._ She thought, as the stretchers came and went with Bella limp body.

When a paramedic asked if Edward needed anything, Esme smiled a bit and told them he was fine, just shaken up. In a matter of minutes it was just Esme and a sleeping Edward in the little clearing,

Carlisle having gone to the hospital to help the Swans'. She held Edward close her, her face openly expressing all her worry and love for her baby.

She waited a bit longer before carefully making her way to the car, quickly buckling Edward in his toddler seat, and driving back home. She called upon her oldest daughter, Alice, who was currently in the living room.

After quickly giving her a replay of what happened she asked Alice to take care Edward while she went to the hospital. The two females went upstairs where they cleaned and redressed Edward, who was still in a heavy sleep.

With a heavy heart Esme laid him down on his little race car bed and gave his forehead a final kiss goodbye.

"What are you going to do mom?" Alice whispered from the door way of Edwards' room.

Staring at sleeping child, she answered Alice "I don't know yet, but I'm going to protect him." She swept a gentle hand across Edwards rosy cheek and stood up to exit the room.

Alice frowned at her mothers words, not liking the feeling that they gave her but she was only twelve, what did she know about protecting a child? She was still one herself.

"I hope that little girl is okay." Alice said stepping into the room to let her mother out. She lightly sprinted over to Edwards' red and yellow Mickey Mouse shaped T.V. pulling down the volume to low as to not wake up her brother.

"So do I, call me or your father if you need anything. I'll be back soon honey." Esme said before making her way down the stairs and to the hospital.

At that same moment over at said hospital, Bella was being prepped for some tests and scans, leaving Renée and Charlie to wait in the waiting room.

"I'll be back. Do you want coffee? Water?" Charlie murmured to his despaired wife as he stood to go to the cafeteria, a poor attempt to distract himself from everything happening at the moment. Renée shook her head numbly, clutching the dream catcher in her hand that she had bought for Bella.

She was alone for two minutes before Esme Cullen made her way determinedly into the waiting room. She spotted Renée and continued to her in even strides.

"Can we talk?" She said lowly to not attract attention. Instantly Renée was on guard, but nodded her head nonetheless. A few turns in the hallway and managing to find an empty room, Esme motioned for Renée to enter first.

There was an awkward silence, before the mama bear in Esme woke up.  
"I think it'd be best for Bella to stay away from Edward." No one said that mama bear wasn't blunt. Upon hearing the words Renée stood straighter, ready to defend her baby girl if it meant knocking a bitch down.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Renée gritted, giving Esme a chance to restate her words.

"It's for the safety-"

"Oh, so you think my Bella is going to attack Edward? Well you know Esme you can take that self righteous attitude and s-"

"Renée! Please, I want nothing more than to go back home to my baby, stop assuming so we can finish this and be on our way." Esme quickly cut in, her  
face flaming from the words that were about to escape Renée.

She took a calming breath and continued, "What I meant was, I think it'd be best for the kids to stay away from each other. This had to be a traumatic experience for both of them and why make it worst by having them near each other when they don't need to be."

Renée begrudgingly deliberated her words, she was right, but not wanting to think that Esme was completely correct, Renée reworded the words so that they fit her situation.

Bella had this terrifying experience due to her contact with Edward and if Renée could, she would do anything in her power to keep it from happening again.

She looked to Esme, who had been patiently waiting.

"Fine. They'll stay away from each other. No more contact." Her voice was strong and she was damn proud of it as well. Esme had always rubbed Renée the wrong way. She lived her life like it was perfect, Renée didn't have that. Deep inside her she wished she did, but she wouldn't trade her baby girl for a perfect life.

"And when school comes around we'll notify them as well. They are to be in separate classes." Both of the women agreed, and settling with a tense smile parted ways.

Later that night, as both mothers looked upon their sleeping child, they realized that they had made the right choice. This unwritten pact stayed intact as the years pasted.

But you now what they say…history does repeat itself.

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**So bugs...yep they're evil. i hope i didn't suck at the 3rd person. I'm not sure if i want the entire story to be in 3rd or in 1st. I'll think about it soon. :)  
Pleeeeeeeeeease review. Bye! don't let the crawling bugs bite!  
**


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